Cotton On is an Australianretail chain, known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. It has almost 1200 stores in 12 countries and employs 17,000 staff in Australia and internationally.[1]

Cotton On also operates Cotton On Body, Cotton On Kids, Rubi Shoes, Typo, T-bar and Factorie and owns Supré.

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History[edit]

Cotton On was founded in 1991, with the first store being opened in Geelong, Australia.[2] As of 2013, the Cotton On chain has over 1000 stores worldwide.[3] As of 2011 the company employed around 5,500 people.[4]

The company was established by Nigel Austin in Geelong, Australia, at the time it only sold women's clothing. The original Cotton On offer has expanded to intimates, sleepwear and activewear with Cotton On Body, children’s fashion with Cotton On Kids, footwear with Rubi shoes, and gifts and stationery with Typo.[5]

The design team in the company's Australian office controls the steps of production from merchandise planning to establishing specifications, and production is outsourced to approximately 150 factories in Europe and Asia. These facilities are used for horizontal division of labor rather than being integrated.

The Cotton On Foundation[edit]

The Cotton On Foundation[13] Goal is to educate 20,000 people from Southern Uganda by the year 2020.

Controversy[edit]

In December of 2012 Cotton On was fined $1 million for selling highly flammable children's sleepwear misleadingly labelled as low fire danger. The discount clothing retailer, which has more than 900 outlets across the country, was fined $400,000 for selling more than 1000 nightdresses that breached Australian fire safety standards, and a further $400,000 for selling more than 1000 unsafe pairs of girls' pyjamas, between September and December 2010. It was fined a further $200,000 for false and misleading labels on both sets of clothing items which claimed they were low fire danger.[14]